Thursday, May 29, 2008

Ran 3 miles already. Was going to go to Long Beach tonight and run on the boardwalk for 4 miles or perhaps more, but traffic on the Northern State was lousy. My muscles have still not completely recovered, but today's initial workout at the gym was 10 times better than yesterday's on the track. I also did some ab work, and been lifting a little too.

I missed the Long Beach Memorial 10 mile run this weekend, but I really did not miss much at all. Ottawa was a huge 'upgrade', and I will definitely be doing it again next year.

The San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon is this Sunday. Gary T. from Thunder Bay, Canada told me it's a great race. Perhaps next year. Gary is with Team Diabetes of Canada. They run for a great cause, and I may be looking to see if the New York Road Runner's Club has any interest to host a similar race here in the Big Apple.

Running Thoughts:Run the first hald of your marathon as a 'pacer'. Ignore the peoplearound you who dash away; keep your head as they lose theirs. Runlike a scientist, with coolness, wisdom, and restraint.-Joe Henderson, Run Farther, Run Faster

Monday, May 26, 2008

Broke my first and most important cardinal rule. "Must sleep well two nights before the race". Saw DaI did not. 4 hours only.

Jack and Pauline stopped by at around 7:30am in his 1999 Kia Sportage. We loaded up and headed out. Jack made a pitstop in Denville, New Jersey to visit his brother, whose birthday it was that day. Beautiful home, in a real nice neighborhood to boot. Although, we already had breakfast, his brother and sister-in-law were very nice people and hospitable too. I tried something called Irish Cheddar. Awesome dairy. Seems like the diet is going to be flung right out the window. I am more like 156 right now. Yo yo, but what the hey. It's not like I am ever overweight (provided that I stay under 160).

Gasoline is still under $4 per gallon in New Jersey. Jack agreed to handle all the gasoline expenses and then divvy it up at the end. The car ride up was a lot of fun. Long too. We took I-80 into Pennsylvania, and then I-81 north towards Syracuse. Along the way we talked running, busted out the UNO cards, and gave Ily a foot rub (what can I say, I guess I'm not such a bad guy after all). We stopped at several areas to fuel up and stopped in Binghampton to eat lunch at some place named Nirchi's. The food was cooked to order & wings were okay.

We continued driving north through Northern NY and thinking to myself whether I should have reconsidered giving T-Mobile another $20 dollars to enable roaming for Blackberry mobile and internet. Bah! I'll give us (Crackberry and I) a rest.

This is where we stayed at.................................The car parked in front of us....lol....................

We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn and if there's anything about staying in Canada that you should know it is this. Whatever is so-so in the US, it is much nicer in Canada. So while Holiday Inn may not be the first choice for most who travel within the 50 states, they have a darn good outfit in Canada. In fact, last year I was treated to a full buffet dinner, and all-I-could-drink wine and beer......for free....during happy hour at an Holiday Inn Express near Toronto airport.

After a little scare, by where Jack's hotel rooms had been cancelled and then re-instated, we changed, refreshed and headed back out to Marilyn's parents house for a nice BBQ. It was already 7pm, and it was getting cool, but I still held out hope that I would be able to go swimming, and had my trunks underneath my pants. There were already 30 people there, and no one was swimming, so there went that idea.

We had some nice steaks and salads, and I had a Canadian beer that was also pretty tasty (darn, can't remember the name. I suck. oh well...). We left, and then headed for Miro's house to get the running numbers. After all was said n' done, we didn't get back to the hotel until after 11. This is a bad omen. 4 hours last night, and only 7 tonight. The two agents that have proven in the past to be my undoing during a race is sun/heat and lack of rest.

Alex, Ily, Jack and Pauline ("Pre") at Barbara's house for a Pre-Race BBQ!

The next day comes. Yawnn. Exhausted. Tank empty. Uh oh. I had some coffee, but all I was doing there was exchanging one issue for another. Caffeine will wake me up, and jump start me, but caffeine also constricts blood vessels too, and can easily tire out a person too.

After I was in the bathroom drying out from my morning shower, I came to the window. I threw my shorts on (but not in that order, lol), and looked out from our 7th floor room. Lo and Behold. The Ottawa Marathon, which started at 7am, ran right in front of our building. Awesome! I took my camera out and decided to do some filming.

The first film (below) you will hear Ileana telling me that there was someone peeing against the wall in the park across the street. I couldn't find him at first, but finally did when he finished his 'business'. The second video, is just a look at some of the runners. Keep in mind, the Hotel was just past the 3K mark (1.8 miles), and it was about 7:30 in the morning, which is probably somewhat conservative so early on. I then turned on the weather channel, and saw that it was going to go from 13 (55F) to 20 celsius (68F). Normally, that's a bit warm, but with no winds or clouds in the sky, and the sun absolutely beeming, this was going to be a challenging race.

I don't do well in the sun. It's sorta like Indiana Jones not liking snakes. Eventually, if I train hard enough, I'll adjust for it. Usually in a 10k, I am about 1 minute per mile slower than normal. In a half-marathon, it's more like 90 seconds. Between this, and the lack of sleep, I was already writing off any chance of repeating my stellar sub-8 performance at the Long Island Half, and just being happy with finishing. The only wild card? The race course itself.

If you notice above, the course is almost completely flat after the half-way point. Strategy? Go out a little faster than normal, and then just maintain.

......I must have left my IQ in the US.......

RACE TIME

We had a 2+ mile walk to the starting line. Believe it or not, this is actually not a bad way to warm up. Plus, we actually walked most of the route too (from the 3k marker to the starting line).

Once we crossed the Booth Bridge (via Rue Eddy), we were in the Provence of Quebec. All the street signs were in French. The city and buildings were beautiful, but it was a ghost town. I felt like Will Smith in 'I Am Legend' (or perhaps even better, Heston in 'Omega Man'). Pauline did not see anyone on the street, and even questioned to Jack whether or not we were headed in the right direction. Soon enough though we were approaching Elgin & Laurier....

WOW, WHAT A SCENE!!!

There has only been one race that I have been to that's larger than this one, and it was the one for why this blog even exists. An endless sea of multitudes of runners, all neatly lined up. The race director was talking to the "troops", not unlike Mary Wittenberg talks to us in New York. Music in the background. A big band on stage. The whole view was staggering. I only wish I could have gotten a picture of it. But what I did instead was to include a YouTube video of a "What To Expect" linked below.

Here's everything that you need to know (well worth it if you like running)ABOUT THE RACE:

And before I give you the play by play, here's a "teaser" video about some of the areas that I saw, as taken from the course during last year's wet (and cooler) run..

Caffeine had me wired. Lack of sleep made me tired. The runners around me were thinking to finish the race before it got too hot. Everyone took off like a bullet train. I not only kept up but even ran past many. Huge crowds cheering along the race course was second to only the NYC Marathon. It almost felt like I was running through Brooklyn during the BIG ONE. Sun was hot and water on the ground everywhere. People already dousing themselves. Again, like Brooklyn.

Photos along Wellington Avenue that I took later on that afternoon:

Pictures of immodesty in front of the Holiday Inn taken by Ileana. Retardation to soon follow...

So, despite the swelling of the sun, and the increased perspiration of my already very wellself-lathered epidermis, I was still flying high. 4 Miles done, and my average pace was 7:51 per mile, 5 full seconds ahead of my record pace. Woo Haah! Yeah Baby! Screw holding back! Pedal to the Medal! Go Go Go Go!

Looks like the colonel has jumped ship for French Foreign Legion!.....And yes it appears that there IS a HO-WAH in OTTAWAH!!============================================================================================

.Part Trois: The End Is NearMile 5: 08:06.51Mile 6: 08:17.55

"POP!!!!" Whoa! Did you hear that? What was that? I will tell you what that was. It was the BEGINNING OF THE END. In fact, I did see a sign that said that The End Was Near. It was about a 1/2 mile from the finish much later on in the race. It should have been here at Mile 6. After the last hill coming up on 10K, all hope was lost. And what's with this shit of measuring the distance 1K at a time?? For Pete's Sake, instead of asking for water at the last station, I looked at the helper and asked for a fucking calculator! I went from sub-8 to an above-8 within 1 mile.

Coming up....Part 2 of the Ottawa Half-Marathon.....and the finale.....Stay Tuned.

The sizzling of my skin had begun. Mr. Bluesky was fierce indeed, it's sunny rays breaking me down and grinding my brain into chopmeat. The momentary energy I had experienced from the 2 mile walk and the first 10k of the race were now replaced by an empty gas tank. Although I had lined up in the proper corral of 1:30 to 2 hours, a lot of the people who started behind me, now were slowly creeping up. There were plenty of people along the canal. The park alongside it, felt a little bit like Central Park. And there were a lot of spectators cheering us on.It was also nice that our running numbers had our name below it. Whether or not, anyone was calling my name (and I don't think so) it didn't really matter. I was losing my steam. Even with my GU packs in me. Suddenly, I started to realize that I was NOT going to repeat Long Island. So, just how bad was I going to wind up? So far every mile since my first mile has been slower than my last. And I wasn't over the slump yet. Not by a longshot. Before I got to the 14K marker, my right foot cramped up. Oh No.Typically this does not happen until mile 20, but given the sweat I exhausted on this warmer than normal day, I lost a lot of nutrients. And all of this was probably a least an indirect result of not having rested enough. The revenge of the sandman indeed....======================================================================================== Part Cinq: Le Crisis in Le CanalMile 09: 09:52.58Mile 10: 10:46.59Mile 11: 09:25.58

Going south on Rideau Canal was taking it's toll on me. There was nothing in the canal to shade me from the sun. Water stop were only every 2 or more miles. It was when I crossed over the canal, before heading north, that my body put the BIG STOP on. It became my complete undoing. I kept hoping that my slump would turn around, but it did not. It was just like the real estate market in this country, where you think you've bottomed out, only to find that it's about to continue getting worse. I could not even get to the 15K marker, when I finally stopped to a walk. It was the first time all year long that I had to walk. I found a gatorade/water station, andstarted dumping. No I did not pull my pants down. By dumping I meant, that I started getting extra cups of water to throw over my head to keep it cool. My foot had still not recovered completely from the cramp. Overall, I'd have to say that I was in big trouble. I suck.

I kept waiting to see when the real Alex would finally start to show up. People were passing me left and right. This was becoming eerily reminiscent of my Long Beach 10 Miler last year, also on Memorial Day weekend. Bizarre.

After the 18th kilometer however, I knew I had to do whatever I could to make this respectable. Fortunately, my watch was telling me hopeful news, and that was that I was not going to finish in over 2 hours or even go over 9 minutes per mile.

Although the sun was only getting hotter, and there was zero in the way of wind, the walk had actually helped me to stabilize. Ensuring no 9+ min/ml half, I started picking up the pace even more than from where I left off in Mile 11.

Fortunately, I got into a groove not seen since perhaps the end of my 5th mile. Thankfully, I was able to ride the wave all the way to the finish line!My final time on my Garmin read 1:53:50 although ING is stating a chip time of 1:53:57. Either way, it was good enough to be in 1952nd place out of the nearly 10000 runners that was announced just before bars of "Oh Canada!" rang thru the starting crowd.

To my surprise, I was rewarded with a medal. The handouts were also nice as I waited for Jack to finish. When he made it through, we went ahead, took pictures, and began our 2 mile trek home. Ouch! My arms were extra crispy from being extra red...Poulet Frit New York....

The real ouch happened later that afternoon however. Once we got back to the hotel, we freshened up and left to go sightseeing. First order of business? LUNCH! Pauline and Jack had gone to a restaurant a couple of years ago called "La Station". Unfortunately last year it was closed because it had burned down.

And speaking of "burning down". Apparently, his car looked like it was going to overheat. We couldn't figure out why (just yet). Jack put some coolant, but it only helped a little.

The next day however vandals broke his right rear view mirror. His car was parked on the street next to the hotel. I was wise to get an entire roll of duct tape from the hotel before leaving back for NY. It came in handy as we had to tape the sucker like 5 times.

Things were just going from bad to worse it seemed!

As we left Canada the next day, we started having overheating problems with the car instantly.We would stop from station to station to let the car cool down, but his temp gauge kept hitting up to as high as 3/4's up. Jack finally figured out that the fan that keeps the radiator cool, was not turning on, or at least not at the right time, possibly due to a faulty thermometer. I came up with a plan, which worked very well. Uphills seem to prevent the wind from entering the engine, and that's a bad thing because we needed the wind more than ever. I got behind the wheel the moment we got into New York. And, so on the up hills I would drive extra slow, stay on the right lane and put my hazards on. I would then surge on the downhills to make up for lost time. To avoid any slowdowns or stoppage, we headed for Albany, once we got to Syracuse, to avoid the deadly Pocono resort traffic. That also paid off.

Finally, and for the Trifecta, we got off in Poughkeepsie, and took the Mid-Hudson Bridge until we got to the Taconic, and took that all the way into the Bronx. And from there it was 95 and then the Hutch. All told I got us home, safe and sound, by a little after 8pm last night.

The trip, the race, and just hanging out in a new city was a lot of fun for me. I will definitely be doing this race again next year, and who knows? Perhaps, I'll venture to another city next year for yet another fun run!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Tonight was the shit. And I haven't used this expression in nearly 2 decades, so when I say that tonight was the shit, it was quite the shit, because it was quite the night.David Lee Roth is to Van Halen what Bananas, Nuts, Whip Cream, and Chocolate Syrup are to scoops of Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry (Which scoop is Eddie Van Halen? You decide!). Life was still good with front man Sammy at the helm, but it was NOT THE SAME. I love Sammy. I own several of his solo albums. But it was not the same.

For me the thought of having Dave and Eddy patch things up and get back together, was second only to the no longer possible dream of having the Fab Four getting back together.

Tonight was a masterpiece. It was the fucking shit, to be more exact.

We got to Garden nice and early courtesy of corporate America's obligatory rule of allowing it's obedient servants the benefit of leaving early on the Friday before Memorial Day. We took the Long Island Railroad in (oh yeah, we never even paid for the tickets cause the conductor did not check either way!).

The opening band was Ryan Shaw. Whatever. What the hell do you say about that anyway? Who is Ryan Shaw? He sounded to me like a mish mosh of "In Living Color" and some pre-fabricated modern rendition of an American Idol. Enough already with this!

I though Van Halen was coming onstage at 9pm. Buzzz...Wrong! At 8:45 they came out on stage, and proceeded a visceral assault on my sense of being a 42 year old man. Slowly, surely and methodically, I was brought back to the summer of 1979. I was living in Laurelton. James Quinn (Jimmy as we called him) was my best friend. Along with his brother Joe, we were like the only white kids on the block.

I really didn't know what to expect from these guys. In fact, I had even posted a blog a few months ago, when Van Halen suddenly announced a postponement of their tour with my show, on St. Patty's Day, sacrificed to the God's of Broken Promises, pictures of Eddy then and now. The then, was Eddy just after his Women And Children First Album. The now, was Eddy in what seemed like a drug rehab picture. Boy, was I wrong about him. He came out looking clean cut and buff. Between he and Dave, I wasn't sure if they were onstage to rock my ears, or kick my ass, by the looks of the muscular build. Kudos to their professional trainers and to the boys decision to the right thing...Longevity does pay dividends, and I'll never tire of their music either.

Our seats were wonderful. Section 60 , 132 seats 7 & 8. Absolute Dead Center and 4 rows up from the first balcony overhang. I couldn't have asked for a better view, unless I was playing next to Wolfgang himself.

My friend Steve, had asked me to report on Wolfie, and whether or not his play tonight was lacking heart. Wolfie definitely got all the notes right, but he was too serious, and I hate to admit, he just did not get into it like Dave and Eddy did. But it didn't matter really. There was enough of either of the two frontmen to make up for any lackluster moments by the youngling.

In fact, VH got us on our feet and for the first time since I was 17, I think I stood for the whole concert. And I was not alone. They were relentless on stage, never letting up for a moment. Dave's funny comments all along the way were just something that I know only Dave could do. He did it for the Diver Down show and was not surprised to see him back to his welcomed antics.

Eddy wailed. And he wailed again and again and again. He not only perfected Eruption but he morphed Little Guitars and extended them both, beyond belief. Modern day technology as it is, was also of compliment to him, for we finally saw the magic of his incredible fingerwork up front and intimately close to all.

The original people sitting next to me left midway. Perhaps they found better seats? I was glad that they did. I thought they were going to fight with one another. The guy next to me was obviously a Met fan, and it was irking his buddy to the point that he yanked his Met hat off and chucked into the walkway, several rows ahead. Some frined, right? Then I heard him say "Fuck you and the Mets. Fuck you and the Mets." Unfortunately, when you go to rock concerts you're going to be exposed to many rock heads as well.

Surprisingly, Ileana enjoyed this concert a lot. She even told me that she liked it better than the Who concert that I took her to see last year. Referring to Eddie's virtuosity, she told me she could not get over how much noise one person could make. Only Ileana could say that. However she topped herself several times tonight.

Right from the very first song, "You Really Got Me", she thought they were singing, "You need some iced tea". Indeed. This could be Lipton's very first Heavy Metal commercial, no? She excused herself, citing the loudness of it all. But the laguhter continued nonetheless. The sad part is that she was not doing this deliberately to get laughs. She cites ignorance and since we are in a public forum here, I am just going to plead the fifth.

How powerful was the crowd tonight. My God. We all sang all the words along with Dave. Running with the Devil, one of my favorites, was my first leap into hoarseness. Air guitars were everywhere too. What a white boy's delight! lol.

Yesterday we saw Indiana Jones, and today Van Halen. Have I gone back in time? It feels good!

Video of "Beautiful Girl" Listen to all of us signing like lunatics!

Quips like "The Leg Up Your Stocking", and Dave turning to Wolfgang and telling him about how he lives in NY and how there are two things that can fuck up a man, and how Wolfie flirted with both of them before the start of the show, left Eddy red, and the rest of us laughing.

The incredible powerhouse performances tonight masterfully wove itself from one song to the next. About the only clumsy "seg-way" was from Dance the Night Away to Atomic Punk.

When "So This Is Love" started up, I was taking back to the time of Doug Botero, Flushing, and his Unchained album, that we played over and over on his record player until the grooves on the record would wear out. "Oh My God!" as Dave would say on Hot For Teacher, another staple from the VH repetoire that was lustlfully exorcised to our ears.

After Pretty Woman, Alex launched into a slow but steady (and deafening) drum solo. I've heard better, but the rest of the guys needed a break. After all they are all deep into their 50's!!!

When the whole ensemble started back up, it was off to the races with "Unchained". At this point, I looked at Eddy with my binos to see if he was smirking at all. No longer together with Valerie (Bertinelli), I'm thinking the song must have some meaning. After all, "That suit is you....You'll get some leg tonight fo' shurr!"

As "When The Cradle Will Rock" was thundering through Madison Square Garden, Ily tugged at me. I looked around, and she was blushing. "I can't believe it!" she told me laughing. "I can't believe that they are saying WHACK OFF."

Ileana was referring to next 2 words in the song, which really was ROCK ON.But to Ileana's ears, they sounded like WHACK OFF.Oh yeah! Right! Let's sing it together shall we? Here we go.....

"And The Cra-dle...will Rock! And the crayyyy-dle, with Rock...and I say...WHACK OFF!! WHAAAAACK OFFFF!"

I was in tears from laughing, and when I made her realize what the words really were, then she did too. What a goofball!

Oh...Uh Oh Oh...Jimmy's Dying! Yes. If you are my girlfriend, then you don't think that Jamie's Crying. You think that Jimmy's Dying. (followed by the wah wah from Eddie's guitar). This time I was visibly crying from laughter. Jimmy's Dying??!!!! Jimmy's Dying??!!!! Wahp Wahhp!!!

Suddenly the stage went quiet, and there was Roth on stage by himself (or so it seemed) with a guitar in hand. He took us back to his childhood days in Pasadena, Cali. And he told us about an ice cream truck with a fridge that they would empty....so that he and his gang could fill it up with beers. He had a friend named Kenny....But then again "Haven't we all had a friend named Kenny at some point, living next door, in the basement, under the stairs, etc?" Following a description of Kenny's four black walls speckled with white dots from when the darts missed the dart board, and how the room began to look like you were looking out of the bridge of the USS Enterprise, he started to play (and sing) the song he said he wrote in 1976, "Ice Cream Man".

I had expected Panama and Eruption to be the encores, but they steamrolled into them with tremendous might. Like I said, the energy they brought forth was uncanny. Even when compared to your typical band age of 20 somethings.

Their was a new next door neighbor sitting to my right now, with his girlfriend. They were stoned, but unlike the idiot before, they seemed harmless. He was really into it, throwing the horns up in the air. He was also like 20.

It is amazing how a child half my age was so into this band. By comparison, I never was into Elvis presley like this. I guess it goes to show you the staying power of the music of my era, and what a wonderful gift it was to have been placed in that period of time. The music of my time does seem to have no end. It's played on mainstream radio stations. Perhaps Rock music is the Classic Music of the last century? Anyway, back to the review.

After "Eruption", which was an all out blitzkrieg by Eddy, they all stormed into "Ain't Talking Bout Love". Towards the end, Eddy injected the classic 3 chord riffs from Deep Purple's, Smoke On The Water. Earlier in the show, they did a little Zeo too...as in a "Bustle in your hedgegrow"

After "Ain't Talking", (link here for it...but then come back!) Dave finally stopped talking. And the lights went to black. But I knew better. There had to be more. The crowd was deafening, and the boys were obviously pleased with the fan participation and non-stop reaction. We gave to them what they gave to us, nonstop devotion. And it only took a few minutes before the disco ball over the stage began to revolve and speckled lights engulfed all of Madison Square Garden. 1984 and then Jump. Fucking A! My night was complete! Or as my friend Doug Botero used to say "Complay-ahhhht!"

And just like all of the war like references that I've made throughout this post, and deservedly so, by the undulating attack from these great musicians, Dave could not have finished the show any better, than to come out with a white Captain's Navy outfit and mention about saluting the service men in town in NY for Fleet Week. Grand Slam, Dave.

As pricey as the concert was, it was worth every penny.

If you have any interest in watching a great show, whether you are a Van Halen afficionado like myself, or just are looking for something to do, you owe it to yourself to check these guys out, if they come to your home town.

Now it's 12:45, and I am waking up in 5 hours for a 9 hour trip to Ottawa. I almost feel like a roadie myself, but hope to kick ass in Ottawa! I will not have access to email or the internet, but will post when I get back.

Lots of things juggling around today. Packed up this morning for the big trip tomorrow. Took Ily to Astoria for a routine checkup. Have a few projects at work that need some updating. Afternoon connection for the VH concert tonight still up in the air. Even here. What's the next blog going to be about? Is it time for a Road Across America segment? Reflections? A pre-race report? The mind's carousel is spinning right now. Where it stops is anyone's guess.

One thing for sure. The weather for racetime is so far shaping out to be enormous. 52 degrees, sunny and no wind.

Perhaps this blog will be about the inner ramblings. After all, isn't that what blogs are about?

Willie Randolph - Nice guy. But should not be the manager.Mets - Aloof. They need a swift kick in the pants. Bring back Bobby V.Carmen - It was nice seeing her again, hope we get an opportunity to visit her up at her cafe soon.Jim (Carmen's boyfriend) - He is a real nice guy. And a talented artist.Dad - He must be getting nervous. His art exhibit's about to begin next week. All the best for himJuan Carlos - I heard an african song the other day on the 'Ethnic' channel off of Napster. They yelled out BUMBA. I immediately thought of him.Gasoline Prices - They should raise the cost of fuel to $100 per gallon. Perhaps then, a complete anarchic revolution will take place. Where are the protestors from the 60's these days? We are all weak like sheep. $4.25 a gallon for the cheap stuff? WE NEED TO SPEAK UP ABOUT THIS NONSENSE! Ottawa - I'm fucking stoked!Forest Park Road Runners - They used some of my photos on their website. This is very cool.Their website, by the way, is www.forestparkrunners.org . Check out the main page, and the Race and Race photos section. The gallery has all my pictures too. Very cool.

Oh... there is a review I would like to share.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This movie is only OK. The action scenes were good. And yes, I know he did them himself. Okay that's impressive actually. Shi LeBouf looks just like my brother in law, Kerry. (and since I look just like Mark Ruffalo, then I think they need to do a movie about us, right?).

There were a few unbelievable scenes. That are, just that. Unbelievable. As in, it is not humanly possible to be able to survive from some of the things that happen in the movie.

There was not enough emotion. The story was not that moving. I loved the set decoration, and Karen Allen looks good after all these years.

Monday, May 19, 2008

I gotta admit, I was fairly nervous. I've never actually helped out at a race before in my life.Never been on the other side of the fence. I was even more nervous for this than I was for any other race this year or last (excluding the NYC Marathon, of course).

I got to Victory Field at about 8, 2 hours prior to guntime. I walked over to the registration tables. It was weird to actually walk behind the tables. First order of business? Get a T-shirt. Lol. Second order, continue saying Hi to everyone. John was there, and I met his wife too. Lovely couple. I never even knew he was married!

Carmen and her boyfriend, Jim, were in town and staying over. Between them and my kids, I was the cook, the bellhop, the waitor and the bottle washer. I was going to take the kids with me to help out, but Steffie Feffie was a little under the weather, and Mah-chew still had poison ivy (you're gonna need an ocean....).

Resisting temptation, I walked away from the bagels and over to the race director. At present, I had nothing under my name. Earlier in the week, Bonnie suggested that I take pictures of the finishers, but the race director asked me to be a race marshall instead.

John and his wife, Carol and I, followed Bertha to the spot where we were going to go.

Into The Woods!

Part of the race (and this is why I love this race so much), is on the trails. Trails are challenging at times, but it is a great way to run and be with my favorite mother of all, mother nature. After getting the site ready, cups filled, people in the right spots, I waited. The waiting was exciting. I knew that a mini-stampede of runners were going to suddenly appear. Damn! I was actually nervous! Did I have my shtick ready? Let's see now...."Make a left into the park road! Water stop on your right!" or "Looking good runners! Beautiful day outside!". Was my camera on autofocus? Was it ready to go?

When my watch said 10am, I imagined the runners taking off at Victory field headed out towards the park, up the park road and into the trails. 'Only a few minutes to go, before they arrive', I thought. Nerouvsly, I started imagining how funny it would be if I had a metal triangle..and would yell to the runners, "Come and get it!", as if to suggest the water were some kind of gourmet meal. lol. Anyway, enough of my twisted self humor.

The first group of runners came up the hill at about 9 minutes after the race had begun. Four of them, tightly packed, all feeling each other for pace, as they made their way to the water stop.Early test results for Alex? As for race direction, I give myself a "B+". No one got lost. But I did miss the photo op for this group, so I flunked that part of the report card.

I made up for it, however. I took nearly 200 photos, many of them from the trails. I did my best to cheer on the runners too. If there was anyone that looked a bit tired, I made sure to say something funny to brighten their mood. Or at least excite them. My spot on the course was not only an exit from the trail, but a re-entry as well. To some of the runners that were heading back into the woods, I warned them, "Don't feed the bears!"

After most of the 182 runners had passed back into the trail, it was time for me to boogie on to the finish line myself. I wanted to take pictures of the winners, plus I was getting lonely (audience: "awwwwhhh"). There was Andy with some of the helpers at the finish line, scoring the runners' times, and Bonnie in the distance with megaphone in hand, preparing to start announcing the raffle winners. Victory Field was elevated with excitement, and the temperature had started to spike too. I felt like I was getting a sunburn, just laying on the artificial turf in the middle of the oval. Then again, the 40 watt light bulb in my desk lamp at my office is enough to give me a sunburn too.

I wanted to make sure that all the runners had a crack at the food first, but now all the runners had finished, and my hunger was kicking in. I ran back and got one of the last bagels left. Mmmm.

Anyway, there were lots of pictures taken. My club's going to post some of them, but in case anyone wanders here, I'm going to post them here as well. Unfortunately, since I'm no pro with the lens, a lot of the action shots are a bit blurry. I'm going to place the runner number below the picture. If anyone finds their picture, and would like me to put their name on instead, just submit your running number and name, and I'll be happy to update it here. Happy Searching!

Post Race Photos:Andy by the finish line...............Bonnie with mic in hand.............Carol just chilling on the turf!!!!!!Hanging by the finish line. ..........Spectators bet. Mile 3 & 4..........The Last of the Best........

Trophy Table...........................Waiting to hear the winners....Kids hanging out too..........POTAPS and his APS peeps!....Quantuum Feet RR Club!....Gimme that prize!!!.............Closeup of trophies for both age categories and High SchoolFuture Runners Await?.............Classmates Post Race Discussions.

Who Is The Machine?

I Am...Life.
I Am...Survivor.
I Am...Thriving.
I Am...Focused..
I Am...Directed.
I Am...Destined.
I Am...Determined.
I Am...Relentless.
I Am...Running.
I Am...Coming After It.
I Am...Coming After You.
I Am...Destroyer.
I Am...Creator.
I Am...Tempest.
I Am...Triumph.
I Am...Unbreakable.
I Am...Epic.
I Am...Machine.